Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who suffers from an incurable lung disease and whose health has recently deteriorated, has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant, the royal palace announced Friday.
Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that causes breathing difficulties, which has repeatedly forced her to take sick leave or scale back her official duties.
"The progression of the Crown Princess's lung disease is serious. After a comprehensive medical assessment, she has now been placed on the list of patients who will undergo a lung transplant as soon as it is possible," Are Holm, a lung specialist at the Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, said in a statement from the palace.
While awaiting the operation, the crown princess will not be able to carry out her official duties, the palace said, adding that her ailing health would also affect the duties and activities of the crown prince and the rest of her family.
The palace announced already in December that the crown princess might need a lung transplant.
The couple's silver wedding anniversary celebration, which was to take place in August 2026, will be postponed, and the couple will not be able to attend the Swedish royal couple's golden wedding anniversary in Stockholm on June 13, the palace said.
The princess's husband, Crown Prince Haakon, recently cut a trip to Japan short to be with his wife.
Their daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, also decided to interrupt her social sciences studies at the University of Sydney to join her mother in Norway and plans to remain in Oslo throughout the autumn.
The princess has recently appeared in public with a breathing tube connected to an oxygen device carried by a palace employee.
Mette-Marit, who married Haakon in 2001, has had a difficult few months in the spotlight.
Documents were released in January revealing her friendship and frequent contact with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014.
In addition, her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, went on trial earlier this year for rape, which he denies.
The verdict in his trial is due on June 15.
Hoiby has requested to be released awaiting the verdict because of his mother's health, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told Norwegian media on Friday.
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